From the editor−in−chief

Dear Readers,

I hope that midterms aren’t making you all too crazy and that your semesters are going well.

I want to briefly draw attention to a topic that has been receiving a lot of attention from Tufts’ various media organizations this semester. As some of you may know, Shabazz Stuart was elected to the public editor position this semester by the Media Advocacy Board. However, you also may have noticed that no pieces from the public editor have printed in the Daily since Shabazz’s appointment.

The public editor position was created in order to provide an ombudsman for media organizations on campus. The role of the public editor is to provide an impartial third party to discuss decisions of campus media groups, explain their choices and, in some cases, critique their actions. We feel that the public editor position is both an important and admirable undertaking, and we do not doubt that Shabazz is more than qualified for the position.

The Daily, however, became concerned upon learning that Shabazz did not intend to step down as co−president of the Tufts Roundtable. Dealing with this dilemma was not easy for us, as we appreciate the function of the public editor and understand that finding a mid−term replacement would not have been easy for the Media Advocacy Board. However, our concerns regarding the potential threats to impartiality brought about by Shabazz’s position on the Roundtable were too great, and we have thus decided to forego printing pieces from the public editor this semester. In our opinion, having a public editor who is also the co−president of one of the very media organizations that he is supposed to be analyzing is too much of a conflict of interest for us to ignore. Shabazz will instead be printing his public editor pieces primarily on the Public Editor Blog. The question of whether or not future public editors’ pieces will print in the Daily will be reassessed next semester.

Sincerely,

Kerianne Okie Editor−in−Chief

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2 comments

lll

Fri Mar 12 2010 09:22

Does this article not have a title other than "From the editor-in-chief?"

NBD, peeps

Wed Mar 10 2010 23:42

Why are a select few getting so worked up about this? The grand majority of Tufts students aren't particularly interested in what a Public Editor has to say.

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